A 25-YEAR-OLD Domboshava man appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Court yesterday facing murder charges after he allegedly killed his stepdaughter to please his mother who had disapproved of his marriage to the victim’s mother.
BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE
The accused, Saul Marufu of Chief Chinamhora area, was not asked to plead when he appeared before magistrate Nomsa Sabarauta, who remanded him in custody to December 21 pending indictment to the High Court.
The State alleges that sometime between October 1 and 28 this year, Marufu, who was the stepfather to the now-deceased Ashley Munyurwa, was in the habit of assaulting her and her sister Alissa Muvirimi in the absence of their mother, Diana Kabasa.
The State alleges that Marufu was angry over his wife’s refusal to take the girls to their biological fathers as demanded by his mother.
On October 28, Marufu was left in the custody of the two siblings by their mother who had found a temporary job at a nearby village.
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It is alleged Marufu assaulted the now-deceased all over the body using an unknown object and after the incident, he left her in the custody of his neighbour Jocelyne Chinhengo.
The State alleges Chinhengo then discovered that the now-deceased had a cut below the nose, a missing front tooth and was bleeding from the mouth.
The now-deceased’s mother later knocked off from work and found her daughter badly injured.
She rushed her to Makumbe Mission Hospital where she was immediately transferred to Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, but died on admission.
A post-mortem report concluded that the girl died of hepatic renal intestinal trauma, hypovolemic shock and head trauma as a result of the alleged assault.
Linda Gadzikwa appeared for the State.